One Year to Midnight (Watchmen)

One Year to Midnight (Watchmen)

YES!!! It's happening folks and while it won't be perfect, you'd have to be a curmudgeon like Banana Oil to not love these images and how things are going.

This pics are from Director Zach Snyder's blog.

Stan Lee Collaborating on Manga

ICv2 News - Stan Lee Collaborating on Manga

Stan Lee Collaborating on Manga With 'Shaman King' Creator
March 04, 2008

According to the Muhyojo Website (via Anime News Network), Spider-Man and X-Men co-creator Stan Lee is collaborating on a new project for Shueisha with Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King is published in the U.S. by Viz Media).

Together they are creating an as yet unnamed story that will help to launch Shueisha's Jump Sq. II (Jump Square Second), which debuts in Japan on April 18th.

Jump Sq.II is a spin-off of the Jump Square manga anthology -- and the announcement of the Lee/Takei collaboration was made in the April issue of Jump Square, which was released on March 4th in Japan. While there have been manga adaptations of both Spider-Man and X-Men, this is the first time that Stan Lee has worked directly with a Japanese collaborator, though the exact nature of the collaboration is not known at this time.Ok, this is something

I'm very curious about this. We've seen the Stan Lee take on DC heroes before and that, by many accounts, was a train wreck. This can either be very cool or just too strange to properly and honestly critique.

Worst Black Heroes Ever! Mal Duncan

From Banana Oil: Circa 2005

Mal Duncan Mal "MAL!" Duncan: The Forgotten Teen Titan!

Long before Cyborg, Beast Boy or even Pantha, the Teen Titans hired their first person of color. The plucky sidekicks club first encountered him in Teen Titans #26, where he was confronting a street gang all by his lonesome in the tough neighborhood of "Hell's Corner," Anytown, USA. Impressed by his blackness and streetwiseness, the Titans invited him to join the team, despite the fact that he had no powers, no costume, and no superhero name.

{above: Mal displays his power of no-self-esteem-having} Mostly, Mal (superhero name: Mal) just stood by while the Titans did things, wearing an orange jumpsuit and occasionally providing much-needed exposition. Soon afterward the Titans adopted a hippie chick and an unfrozen caveman. By then Mal's duties had shifted to watching over headquarters, and he seriously considered changing his superhero name to The Janitor. The Teen Titans briefly returned from cancellation in 1977. By this time heroes like the Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Black Lightning had gained popularity, and this led DC to conclude that maybe Mal should be more of an actual superhero and less of a token black guy in a jumpsuit.

{above: Teen Titans #44, 1977...Mal's first try at being superheroic probably led to "Identity Crisis" #1-8} It was decided that Speedy, aka Roy Harper, would now be revealed as the nephew of one of DC's third-string golden agers: Jim Harper, aka The Guardian. For the flimsiest of reasons, i.e., Speedy somehow having the Guardian's old suit in his closet, Mal Duncan decided to embark on a career as the new Guardian. This career lasted one issue, as Julie Schwartz was reported to have said "what the fuck are you guys doing?" and so the time had come for yet another identity for Mal. In Teen Titans #45, someone claiming to be the archangel Gabriel gave Mal some sort of enchanted bugle, and so began the legend of Hornblower.

{above: Teen Titans #47, and note that Mal is always credited as "Mal!" on the covers. It's like they were ashamed to call him "Hornblower" or something} For the following year, Mal switched between the guises of Hornblower (until his horn was stolen; oddly, nobody tried very hard to find it again), The Guardian (now The Golden Guardian), and "Mal!" This led to very little confusion, since nobody was reading Teen Titans anyway, and the comic mercifully ended with #53, but not before Mal's girlfriend started dressing up as a giant bee. But that's another story.

{above: Mal, seen here as Herald, the post-Crisis version of Hornblower. Yes, someone at DC actually thought "Herald" would be a less embarrassing name} These days, Mal! only gets trotted out for anniversary issues and Titan weddings or funerals. But his years of exemplary service have made him a glorious asterisk in the annals of Titans history. There have been other lame black heroes, but no one was as lame as long and in as many different ways as Mal Duncan.

Star Wars Geeks: Rejoice!!!

ICv2 News - 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Movie


For those of you who really like to believe that there was no Episode 1-3 (I count myself and there was no Episode 6 either), here is a project you can get behind.

I hadn't heard anyone complaining about the Animated Clone Wars series and we all know that Jesus won't let people jack up epic cartoon anymore so this has to be a good thing.

Of course if it sucks then it means that Jesus took a day off because he's all wrapped up in Watchmen movie drama.

You guys better start prayin...

Steve Gerber R.I.P.

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/steve_gerber_1947_2008/

Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown and some pretty strange Defenders stories are what the man leaves behind. If you were a geek reading Marvel Comicsa in the 70's then you couldn't have gotten by without Steve Gerber.

There hasn't been a decent batch of villains with mix matched heads since...

Doc M

ICv2 News - Fox Sues Warners over 'Watchmen'

ICv2 News - Fox Sues Warners over 'Watchmen'

For those of you who, like Alan Moore, are terrified at the prospect of a Watchmen movie (although for the life of me, I can't figure out why the hell he even cares), Santa may have gotten your letter.

Fox wants it so bad they are willing to go to court for the right to spend 15 Million dollars and be hated by every comic book fan born after 1964 but before 1983.

I saw Cloverfield

And it was GOOD!

I'll tell you what was good about it.

Cloverfield was the BEST attept at Lovecraftian Horror you will ever get in the modern film making era. Sure you can have Reanimator, From Beyond and Dagon on your list if you want but I'll just say High School, High School and Netflix during college.

JJ Abrams didn't make a film that reminded you of any of his other projects either and he could have. There would have been plenty of room for some Lost Alias Heroes to crrep right in there and battle a big assed Mystery monster for 2 hours.

He didn't do that but you know what he did do? he delivered on the promise of his viral marketing campaign.

SOMETHING scared the shit out of us! Night Nurse declared that she wasn't even gonna deal with the POV camera stunt and Ice Queen bolted when one of those many bridges in NYC ate a crown of people but Eris404 and Xtine stuck it out. Eris talked to the screen in a good way too. You know, laughing and screaming like you do when you're actually engaged in the film as opposed to yelling and laughing because you think the actors need your advice.

You really don't get a good look at the monster til damn near the end of the movie and I'm not sure you should have gotten one then. They also do a good job of not letting you see a lot of the "fleas" either, which I like. This gave it a little bit of "The Warriors" meets "Aliens" kinda feel.

You know, 4 Yuppies are forced to turn off the old Sparta and Radiohead CDs and trot themselves across town to find a 5th yuppie whme the 1st yuppie had a thing for before all hell broke loose.

"Hey Guys, Lets take the tunnels!"

Ok look, of Chicago is ever attacked by a 60 foot tall Cthulhu, I will NOT walk down in the Red Line tunnel to get away from it to find my way home. I'd really just as soon take my chances using Jackson to get to Ashland to get to Lincoln to Get to McCormick to get to Main where I'd totally make a right to get over to Crown Park and BAM, home free.

The Monster would get to Chicago, attack Navy Pier cruise on up to Lincoln Park and then probably head South West to Naperville. I'd be way ahead of him by the time he crossed a street I'd used.

In the end, JJ Abrams stick with his plan. The army guys don't explain what the monster is. They don;t intercept an ancient message from the "Old Ones" warning us about the dangers of polluting the oceans.

No one melds minds with the creatures.

They drop bombs on them.

That's f'n right.

They f'n drop bombs.

Just like you'd want them to do.

If you saw Independence Day, Godzilla (Matthew Broderick) or I am Legend and were a lil pissed, JJ Abrams has stolen money from those film makers ala Robin Hood and given you the film you deserve.

Unless the POV camera makes you sick. Then I feel for you and JJ should have added Dramamine with the price of the ticket.